The idea of the sublime has something to do with a beauty that is so awe-inspiring that it quite nearly inspires terror. If thatās the definition, then there are certainly occasions during a trip on southern Chileās Carretera Austral that call for use of the word.
One that comes to mind, from a recent trip that my girlfriend and I took on Chileās southern highway, happened on the last day of our trip. We were heading towards the Argentine border on a route which had us spending the greater part of the day circumnavigating the banks of the Lago Carreraāan immense, intensely turquoise glacial lake. The sun was already setting as we were finishing the last bit of road leading in to the town of Chile Chico. Sailing through town, we emerged on the other side and were shocked by the sight before us: the highway had spit us out on the other side, in the face of soaring peaks, rising and falling beside a ribbon of road carving a precarious route into the abrupt turns and jagged cliffs. And thatās where the sublime came into play.
The hairpin curves, steep rises, and sudden descents were certainly terrifyingāand the terror was intensified by the fact that we were on the side of a mountain with 90-degree cliffs; on a road surface of unpaved gravel. But the beauty of the place was as overwhelming as the drops were fear-provoking. On the opposite shore of the lake, the snow covered Andean peaks turned orange and then purple with the dying light, and at every sharp curve in the roadāas we held our breath and sometimes gaspedāwe were treated to a new, stunning vista.
As the hotel clerk in Chile Chico told us later: āIf anyone asks you if youāve ever piloted an airplane, you can say, āNo, but Iāve come pretty close.āā
The Carretera Austral is a long, mostly gravel highway which serves as Patagonian Chileās only land link to the more populated northern part of the country. Its north to south route parallels that of the mythic Highway 40 on the Argentine side of the border, but where the 40 only gives you a glimpse of the Andes in the faraway distance, Chileās Carretera Austral traces a route right through the heart of the mountain chainācircumnavigating the northern and southern ice caps and the snow blanketed peaks which surround the ice fieldsāpassing high mountain glaciers, waterfalls, fjords, and national parks with dense Pacific forests. Along the way, in the port cities, thereās fresh salmon on offer, probably some of the very best in the world.
We took the Carretera only as an afterthought, a way to break up the monotony of a 1,500 kilometer trip south from Bariloche to the glaciers in Argentinaās southern Santa Cruz province. But our unplanned detour turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the trip. After all, as we were told in the hotel: itās the closest you can get to flying without leaving the ground.
Enter your username and password here in order to log into the website: